American Historical Ephemera and Photography Featuring the Civil War and American Militaria Collection of Bruce B. Hermann

16 1/2 x 22 1/8 in. letterpress broadside (discoloration, creasing, and some wear/separation to creases and edges). Verso with ink inscription "A. Hahn / Mastodon."

Broadside announces the exhibition of a recently discovered "gigantic mastodon" specimen, leaving a blank area for the location of the exhibition to be accomplished in manuscript (left blank here). Fine printed text to lower half of broadside details the history of scientific findings related to the mastodon, including discoveries of bones, teeth, and other specimens in years past, and emphasizing the importance and peculiarities of the most recently discovered specimen found by Abraham Hahn on his property near Bucyrus, Ohio, on 13 August 1838. "(T)he head and scull bones are perfect in all their parts...In this, the deficiencies existing in all those heretofore found are fortunately supplied." Measurements of various bones in the skeleton are then listed.

A note at the bottom of the broadside informs readers that the owner of the specimen will "devote unremitted attention to their [the public's] wishes and enquiries" in order to make the exhibition as agreeable and instructive as possible to all classes and ages." 

[With:] 7 7/8 x 12 1/2 in. newspaper extra from the Crawford Republican reporting on the discovery of the Hahn Mastodon (spots of soiling and discoloration, creasing, and wear to edges and corners). Page features handwritten edits and inscriptions, including "X" marks drawn over certain paragraphs, a correction made to one of the jaw measurements given, and an inscribed paragraph at the bottom, which is reproduced in print at the bottom of the broadside. 

Abraham Hahn (1829-1867) reportedly sold the bones in Columbus for $1,800 after exhibiting them for a while. Though it cannot be confirmed, some sources report that the bones eventually fell into the hands of P.T. Barnum, and were thereafter destroyed when his museum burned to the ground in 1865.